Marital Adjustment and Subjective Well-Being in Indian-Educated Housewives and Working Women

We compared marital adjustment and subjective well-being in Indian-educated housewives (N = 200) and working women (N = 200) who were administered a Marital Adjustment Questionnaire (Kumar & Rastogi, 1976) and 10 measures of subjective well-being (Warr, 1984). Results indicated significantly better marital adjustment and subjective well-being for the working women than for the housewives. Specifically, working women reported higher scores on general health, life satisfaction, and self-esteem measures and lower scores on hopelessness, insecurity, and anxiety, compared with the housewives, although the housewives had lower scores on negative affect than the working women. Findings were insignificant on positive affect and depression.